I just bought an AMD Athlon II X3 440 (retail box).
When I came back home and opened the box I found that the CPU has a "dot" on its surface. It seems like the dot is not covered by the normal paint.


see the dot near the 2D bar-code


My new motherboard is still on its way so in a few days I'll not be able to test whether this processor works or not.

Returning it would be complicated since it is from an online store.

So if it is not dead-for-sure I'll just wait for the arrival of the motherboard.


Can one tell it is dead from the surface?

it shouldnt be a problem. but if it is then simply post it back. email where you bought it from to say it arrived damaged just to cover yourself.

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I highly doubt it would be a problem, those heat spreaders are pretty thick,
one way to find out tho, install it and fire it up if it works your good to go.

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i7 2600K - Asus Maximus Extreme-Z - G.Skill DDR3 2133 CL9 - MSI 5870 - Corsair 1200w PSU - 2 x Western Digital Raptors Raid 0 - Swiftech Apogee XT Water Block - Swiftech MCP655 Pump - 120mm Quad Rad - Windows 7 - Ubuntu x64

5311Mhz Validation

I scratched mine a little bit and it still works



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Phenom II 965BE @ 6.22GHz on LN2

if the shell is really thick then it wouldn't be a problem . I just don't know how deep can one dig a hole on the cpu's back without actually damaging its functionality/reliability.

I've known people to actually make a fixture to place these CPU's into a wet grinder so they could lap the surface. They'd actually remove .010-.015" of the heat spreader to ensure a perfectly smooth surface for the thermal compound. They'd lap the cooler's base to match and they would get an improved heat transfer of about 15-20%, mind you, these are liquid cooled rigs with high level overclocking going on. Just so long as that is a scratch/scrape you should be fine, if thats an impact dent there could be issues but you won't know until you try to fire it up..

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System Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78-E
Memory: 8 Gig (4 x 2Gig) G-Skill 1066 DDR2
CPU: AMD Phenom II x 4 955 BE @3.8Ghz
Cooling: AC Freezer 64 cooler
PSU: Corsair 750W
GPU: Gigabyte GV-R489UD-1GD HD 4890
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64

You should be ok with what I can see!!! I have actually wet sanded a couple of my Athlon64 cpu's down so i could get the very best heat transfer possible since I was using air cooling and overclocking!!! Let me know how it workeds when you get your mobo!!!